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My recommended reading list this week includes articles about using employee assessments to find your next superstar, how workers must learn to work with technology not just use it, and what companies can learn from Jeremy Lin when it comes from finding talent.

Are there assessments to find employee superstars?

That question hits the nail on the head. It is what employers what to know when they use a pre-employment test. It is also the metric against which companies want to measure success. (“But the test said to hire him.”) Unfortunately using a 10 minute personality test to uncover an employee’s super power is unrealistic. But when combined with other employee selection tools, pre-employment assessment tests can be very effective. This recent #TChat Radio Show offers a very easy listening and understandable discussion about current hiring best practices and what types of assessments should be used. One of the panelists is Julie Moreland, president of PeopleClues. PeopleClues is one of our most popular pre-employment assessment systems.

The Battle of Man Vs. Machine Is Over

Buried deep within the current debate about the shortage of skilled and qualified workers is a profound shift in the role of a worker. Most private and public discussions about closing the skills gap focus on training and re-training. But this article reveals a significant flaw in that thinking. In “Thriving in the Automated Economy,” the authors propose that the war for talent will only be won if “we partner with our machines” not just use them. It’s a subtle difference with profound effects. It is a must read for any employer and employee wanting to be competitive and differentiated in the marketplace.

Jeremy Lin Exposes Major Flaws in Talent Selection

It’s Linsane! For those who don’t follow the NBA (or check Twitter), Jeremy Lin is a New York Knicks point guard who has gone from itinerant reject to phenom in just short of a month. It exposes how terrible professional teams are at identifying talent. Despite millions of dollars spent recruiting high potential superstars, many of them crash and burn. While this article discusses the failure of meritocracy in predicting the next professional sports superstar, it offers a multitude of lessons to hiring managers too. Not only does every hiring mistake come with high cost and opportunity lost, it highlights “how teams remain tethered to useless metrics and measurements.” What hiring criteria and human resource metrics is your company using that misses good talent when it sees it? I’ll start with the “Linterview” which has the same random rate of success as professional high draft choices – about 52 percent. That my dear folks is just slightly better than flipping a coin.